Lightning

Lightning

Some of you may have noticed that our resident greeter, precious “Lightning” has not been doing his job, he has not been slacking but has found his forever home with our nurse Kim. Kim has a tuxedo cat called “Batman” and him and “Lightning” are best buddies. “Lightning” and “Batman” would both get very depressed when “Lightning” had to return to work, so Kim thought to spare the depression she would have him stay at her house. He will still come for the odd visit and still has his Facebook page going strong. Still as ever he is very playful and fits in perfect at his house. He still will taunt “Blue”, his sister, but he learns his lesson very quickly. If you are not familiar with “Lightning” his history and story below.

“Lightning” came to us as a 6 week old kitten from Alley Cats Rescue in Red Deer, Alberta in 2013 as an OrthoPets case for Dr. Calverley. He had been trapped as a wild kitten with his littermates and came to us because of severe deformities in both his back legs. After thorough diagnostics he was diagnosed with tibialagensis – a birth defect that impedes the normal development of the bones in both his hind legs and is the same condition that occurs in about 1 in 5 million people. With the help of a fantastic surgeon, he was able to have one leg turned around to walk properly on it. It took a great deal of time to heal and he needed a second surgery to relax the tendons in his toes but he walks on them well now. We recently have decided to not surgically repair the other leg, as he is fully mobile and is such a happy, energetic boy. His disability has not slowed him down one bit and he is such a trooper through all of his physiotherapy and swimming sessions. He was recently diagnosed with a congenital heart defect which we are monitoring and treating with medication that he is responding well to